| Issue No. 243 Serving the Entire Business Community November 2004 | ||
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 The Gift Certificates ProgramMEMBER NEWS One of the various functions of your Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce is to be a part of the process in creating ideas that will promote our Chamber member area businesses. Most of the ideas find life through the various committees that are a part of the fabric of this Chamber. Chamber Gift Certificates, sometimes referred to as Chamber Bucks, do keep customers Shopping Plymouth First. What follows is the pertinent information as to how this program works. There is now a new addition to this service gift certificates may now be ordered online from the Chamber's web site. From our web front page, see CHAMBER GIFT CERTIFICATES at the top bar and click. This Gift Certificate program is very easy and safe to use. The certificate(s) may be ordered from the Chamber office and online by any person or company, and be presented as general gifts or perhaps, as part of an employee bonus program. There is no cost above the face dollar value of the certificate. The purchaser picks up the certificate(s) ordered at the Chamber office (120 N. Michigan St.) and tenders payment to the Plymouth Chamber in cash or check (sorry, no plastic). The gift certificate is a legal check, purchased by any gift giver and can be accepted with the same confidence as a cashiers check or as cash by any participating Chamber business. The certificates are individually typed with the pertinent information - the dollar amount (up to $100.00 per certificate), the recipient's name, if applicable, and a greeting or the name of either an individual or the company giving the gift certificate(s). Each certificate is then placed in an envelope along with a cover letter and the list of participating Chamber member businesses. The recipient of the gift certificate then chooses from this list of Chamber member businesses the business or businesses from which to make their purchase or purchases. The participating Chamber member merchant treats this form of tender just as they would any cash transactions. Although these may look like a second party check since they may be personalized to the recipient and must be endorsed like a second party check, these are pre-purchased gift certificates. The money goes directly into one bank account specifically for gift certificate purposes only, thus making these checks "as good as cash." The merchant therefore treats these like cash and makes change just as if he or she has received cash. These gift certificates will bring new and previous customers to the participating store a form of advertising dollars that Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce member merchants do not have to expend. Enclosed with this NewsMonth is our current list of participating members. If your business is not listed and you want to participate, please call us at 936-2323 and have us add your business to the list. If for any reason you no longer wish to participate, let us know and we will remove your listing. These past several years there has been a tremendous increase in the purchase of Chamber gift certificates. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of these Chamber Bucks have been in circulation over the Christmas Holidays. A vast number of these certificates are purchased by many of Plymouth's Industrial businesses for their employees. And throughout the year, individuals purchase gift certificates as gifts for all occasions. We sincerely hope that the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce members will take advantage of this program, both as gift givers and especially as participating businesses. It is a great way to give and a great way to keep our member businesses in the public's spending loop. This is a great way to "Shop Plymouth First!"  The Christmas Basket Promotion ProgramYour Response is needed as soon as possible. This Holiday Season promotion is now a Chamber tradition and anticipated by our community with great delight. We want to thank each of you for your past participation and we want to extend this invitation to all members, present and new, to participate this year. The Christmas Basket promotion continues to be a very successful community effort and terrific exposure for our membership. Thousands of customer entries are received each year from our participating member businesses. The basis is simple. This promotion brings customers into your store to sign up for one of four drawings and they must come into your business each week to sign up. At the end of each week, you bring the sign up slips to the Chamber office for the following Monday drawing. Each of the four baskets contains one of the four like items you have donated. During this Holiday Season, four (4) Gift Baskets highlighting products and services either sold or produced here in Plymouth are given away, one each week before Christmas. Obviously retailers can focus on a specialty item they would like to promote. Every year the Retail Merchants Committee extends this invitation to our Industrial members to feature products and services manufactured here, for example, DelMonte Foods Corporation ketchup or Dean Pickle & Specialty Product pickles. With your help we can raise the public awareness of items sold and produced in our community and where to purchase that special gift item they need. If you would like to participate, please bring (4) four like items (one for each basket) to the Chamber office by November 15 before 2:00 PM. We prepare the baskets, display the contents of one basket in our large front window, and list the contents and donors beginning the week of Thanksgiving. So that we know what our participation will be, please call (574-936-2323) as soon as possible to let us know if your business will be a registration site and /or if you are bringing four items for the basket. Note - give your company credit - if the product or promotional item does not in itself identify your business, please attach some identifier to each item...your business card is perfect. And remember, actual products are wonderful and gift certificates for your store will bring the recipients back to see you. Starting November 29, the first of the four drawings will begin. Thanks for your help in this promotion! We all look forward to a prosperous holiday season!. ------------   Ancilla Domini College9601 S. Union, Donaldson; 574-936-8898; www.ancilla.edu For each of the past eight years, Ancilla College has given its United Way campaign a special theme. This year is no exception. With ancient Egypt as their inspiration, John Gough, director of accelerated adult credit programs at Ancilla, dressed as the 'Nubian Slave,' towed 'Queen Dean' Sharon Blubaugh in the Nile River Barge across Lake Galbraith in support of United Way campaign efforts at the College. United Way representatives were asked to raise their goals 12% above the previous year. This year the Ancilla College community raised over $5,000 for United Way - 6 percent above its goal of $4,872 - a total increase of 18 percent. "It's gratifying to know that our employees and students really care about our community, and give to such a great cause," said Ancilla President and United Way Board Member Dr. Robert Abene. Ancilla College is a private, two-year, co-educational, liberal arts college sponsored by the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ and located on the grounds of the PHJC Ministry Center at Donaldson, Ind. Baldwin-Miller Financial Advisors440 E. Jefferson St., Plymouth; 574-936-2006 From the Desk of Jim Baldwin If you have recently moved or changed a phone number, you may have advertising pens or pencils left over with old information. You would not want to give them to customers because the information is wrong. Maybe you know someone who ran for public office and still has left over unused pens and pencils. By donating these outdated items you can help a charity I would like to suggest. Many of us remember Father Muwonge Expedito who worked at St. Michael's a few years ago. He is from Uganda, East Africa where the scourge of HIV/AIDS has left many thousands of children orphaned. He has founded ìCome to the Rescue Associationî, a Plymouth based all volunteer charity to support these orphans. While public health workers have helped to educate the people about HIV/AIDS and improve living conditions, Uganda is left with a huge legacy of children who are alone. Boarding schools in Uganda are where the many of these children spend three months at a time, and then are sent ìhomeî for school holidays. Father Expedito's vision is to keep these children in families when they are out of schools. They would live together with their brothers and sisters in the same clan or tribal area. This allows the children to remain part of their community as they grow up. State orphanages herd the children into big cities and do not provide the Christian religious training that the boarding schools provide. It is important that these children are raised with the Christian values that are lacking in other areas of the world. Come to the Rescue Association is a very small charity and has no paid staff in the United States or in Africa. They are limited in the number of children that can be supported since it is so small. When visitors go to Africa to see the children, they may be seeing one child in a school with dozens or even hundreds of other children. They may pass out pens or pencils or other inexpensive bulk items to the other children. A child may carry a new pencil around all day because it is a treasure. It is hard for us to imagine that, but it is true. Your donations could really have a huge impact on a very impressionable and needy child. You can learn more about Come To The Rescue Association at their website, www.cometotherescue.org. Donations of pencils or other items can be left at my office which is open from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday. Child Care, Inc.3606 E. Jefferson Blvd., Ste 215, South Bend 46615; 574-289-7815; www.4csindiana.org Community Coordinated Child Care, Inc. (4C's) has been assisting parents and families seeking child care in Marshall County for the past year with a free referral service. During that time, 4C's obtained a grant from the Indiana Child Care Fund, Inc. called Better Baby Care Indiana (BBC). BBC provides parents/families needing child care for children age 0 - 3 years with a free enhanced referral service. With an enhanced referral, 4C's contacts the providers on the list generated by the information provided by parents/families. 4C's talks with the child care providers to ensure which providers have openings and would care for the children. Further funding has been secured for the Better Baby Care project so this enhanced referral service will continue during the coming year. Additionally, 4C's will expand their referral service in the coming year to provide an inclusion referral project targeting parents/families with special needs. Both the Better Baby Care and the Inclusion Project have funding available to provide training to child care providers. For more information on any of these projects, call 4C's at 574-289-7815 x 2 or 800-524-4533 x 2. Don't forget to visit our web site at www.4csindiana.org. ------------ New Members
------------ November 2004
------------ November Inserts
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